​”Okay. What is it that you’ve lost?”

The little girl stared at her with big eyes, not responding. Susan tried again.

“In order to find it, I need to know what was lost. What have you lost?”

The girl swallowed. “My… my backpack. It’s blue.”

“A blue backpack.” The teen nodded, once, twice, then looked down at the little girl again. “What is it?”

“You have a bird on your shoulder.”

Susan would have shoved Death off her shoulder, but saying in front of a little girl that Death was the name of the big black bird seemed like a bad idea. Death chuckled in her ear.

“Um, yes. Blue backpack. Got it.”

She rushed off to find the backpack before lunch was over.